Theater returns to Jordan-Matthews this spring with outdoor performance of ‘The Lottery’

SILER CITY, N.C. — Rehearsals for “The Lottery” had barely started when the world turned upside down.

At the time, what became a global pandemic seemed more like a short pause. Nothing was canceled right away, even though the news kept getting worse day by day. And certainly nobody expected it would be more than a year before actors at Jordan-Matthews High School returned to the stage.

But it looks like that return is finally happening. Live theater is on the schedule once again.

“The Lottery,” that same play that barely went into rehearsal last spring, returns in May, pandemic permitting, with two free, outdoor performances with limited seating. And, in some ways, the pandemic and the changes it has forced in how the play will be performed actually add real gravity to what audiences will see unfold on stage.

The 30-minute, one-act play — based on a short story by Shirley Jackson and dramatized by Brainerd Duffield — begins with people assembling for a lottery. Only as events build swiftly to their climax do audiences begin to suspect the nature of the lottery. The shattering final scene has brought wide acclaim to both the short story and the play.

Director Jessica Nunn won’t say exactly how the pandemic will shape the production, but there’s no way of ignoring its impact. Because, without giving away any spoilers, there are parallels to what we’ve all been experiencing over the last year.

“Because we’ve had a year to think about this play, it holds a very different meaning now than it did before the pandemic,” says JMArts President Rose Pate, who is producing “The Lottery.” “It asks the uncomfortable question: How much will a community sacrifice to preserve their prosperity? Great theatre doesn’t have to be Shakespeare to shift the way we look at our world, and this will almost certainly change the way we view ourselves.”

Technically, things will be different as well. Most students cast last year will resume their roles, but auditions for characters played by students who graduated last year will be held virtually in late March. Rehearsals and performances will follow guidelines issued by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by Chatham County Schools to limit the coronavirus spread, which includes masks and social distancing.

Even though theater will be different than normal, everyone is anxious to return when rehearsals begin on April 12. “I can’t wait to get back to theatre and to get back to these kids,” says Nunn, who has directed all of the Jordan-Matthews theatrical productions over the last five years. “I’ve missed both of those things very much, and I love that we will get a chance to finish what we started a year ago.”

But no one is as anxious to return to the stage as the student actors who love theater and just got started on “The Lottery” last spring before weeks-long delays turned into months and then a year. Hannah Redding, a senior who will perform the central role, was particularly glad to get the news that theater was returning. “If you know me, you know I love the stage and can’t wait to be back,” she said. “I’m extremely excited to play Tessie Hutchinson in JM’s ‘The Lottery’ this spring.”

Performances of “The Lottery” are scheduled for May 7, at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., in the outdoor courtyard at Jordan-Matthews High School between the cafeteria and main office. Tickets will be very limited due to pandemic guidelines, with reservations being accepted beginning April 26. Visit JMArts.org/events/ in April or follow JMArts on social media for more information about tickets and performances.

More information about JMArts, including a schedule of upcoming arts events and information on membership, is available online at JMArts.org.

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Jordan-Matthews actors — Rilee Rains, from left, Lindley Andrew, Laci Burt and Hannah Redding — rehearse “The Lottery” one year ago, just before the pandemic took hold. Burt and Redding will be on stage this year when the play finally returns.

Zy’kiuh Marsh, from left, Wilson Ramos Meza and Mia Lopez-Calvo had just started rehearsal for “The Lottery” before the pandemic last spring. The 30-minute, one-act play will be performed twice on May 7 in an outdoor production with limited seating.

Billed as a “chilling 30 minutes of drama,” “The Lottery” will hit the Jordan-Matthews High School stage more than one year after this early rehearsal with Litzy Garcia-Santos, Louis Graham, Gisselle Aleman Moreno and Cristian Esquivel.

Charlotte artist transforms Jordan-Matthews library's trash into work that inspires

SILER CITY, N.C. — Call them vintage. Or just call them old. But for Jordan-Matthews High School media coordinator Rose Pate, that large pile of old Life magazines that had remained untouched for decades was just gathering dust. Let’s face it: They were trash.

But that didn’t mean she was ready to bury them in a landfill. “We needed to clear the library storeroom early last year to make a workspace for teachers and so we simply needed to get rid of them,” Pate said. “After give-aways to our history teachers, the next obvious spot was the art department.”

Down the hall and around the corner, some art students studying under teacher Rahma Mateen-Mason worked in the studio at the time, sorting through the stacks, pulling images and words for their own collages. And, after that, when there were so many issues left untouched, Mateen-Mason knew exactly where to send them next: her friend John R. Miles III.

Miles is a collage and mixed media artist working in Charlotte, someone who shares a passion for arts education. After graduating from Western Carolina University with a Bachelor of Fine Art, he returned home and accepted a job with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools as a high school art teacher. Now, he is a full-time artist whose work appears in many public spaces including Charlotte’s Harvey Gantt Center, Brooklyn Collective and 9189 Studio Gallery.

“Collage has become a lost art form over the years,” Miles explains in an artist statement on his website. "Romare Bearden brought collage to light during the Harlem Renaissance, and I’m bringing it back to light today. I want the world to understand that collage is not just the cutting and pasting of pictures on a page. Instead, it’s more like taking puzzle pieces that were never meant to fit together and manipulating them to not only fit, but also to make an aesthetically pleasing image during the culmination of a long, and tedious process.”

Much of the work he created using magazines from Jordan-Matthews seems nostalgic, which isn’t terribly surprising, since the Life magazines spanned roughly from the 1940s to 1960s. But there’s always a subtext to be gleaned in the work, something left for the audience to interpret and absorb.

Mateen-Mason was happy to share the magazines with her colleague, who made an appearance in Pittsboro last year as an instructor in Chatham's first-ever All-County Art Workshop. And she was impressed to see what he did turning potential trash into art that has made an impact — not only on audiences, but the artist, himself.

“John was delighted and grateful to get the magazines,” she said. “He was definitely inspired by them.”

More information about JMArts, including a schedule of upcoming arts events and information on membership, is available online at JMArts.org.

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Four collages by mixed media artist John R. Miles III include material from Life magazines contributed by Jordan-Matthews High School.

JMArts receives grant for ‘Gotta Dance’ spring theater dance workshop

SILER CITY, N.C. — JMArts, the Jordan-Matthews Arts Foundation, plans to offer an after-school dance workshop for student actors this spring thanks to a Grassroots Grant announced last month by the Chatham Arts Council.

“Gotta Dance! Dancing for Musical Theatre” will be the first formal dance class offered at Jordan-Matthews High School for at least four decades. The six-hour class scheduled over two sessions will teach dance terminology and basic steps, help students understand what to expect at a dance audition and work through choreography.

While the pandemic could still change any plans, the workshop was originally created as part of student actors’ preparation for the Broadway musical, “Oklahoma!,” in a local production scheduled for late March.

The grant will help fund a residency for Peggy Taphorn to teach classes. Taphorn has directed, choreographed and performed across the world, including numerous productions on Broadway, London’s West End, touring the United States, Canada, South America and Asia. She is in her 14th season as the Producing Artistic Director at Temple Theatre in Sanford.

“I’m excited to share knowledge of the theater and particularly dance and choreography with the Jordan-Matthews students in this upcoming collaboration,” Taphorn said. “After an introduction to dance, we hope the workshops will culminate in choreographing ‘Kansas City,’ a dynamic and classic number from ‘Oklahoma!’”

JMArts President Rose Pate said she’s still not sure how the workshop will need to be altered during the pandemic. “But we are very pleased to offer this new opportunity for arts education to Jordan-Matthews students, either this spring or soon after that,” she said. “We’re grateful to Peggy and the Chatham Arts Council for helping us offer such a wonderful experience for our students and community.”

The Grassroots Grant Program is made possible by individual contributions to the Chatham Arts Council’s general operating fund — and by the Grassroots Arts Program of the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

More information about JMArts, including a schedule of upcoming arts events and information on membership, is available online at JMArts.org.

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Peggy Taphorn, Producing Artistic Director for Temple Theatre in Sanford, plans to teach an after-school dance workshop for student actors at Jordan-Matthews High School.

“Gotta Dance! Dancing for Musical Theatre” is offered with a Grassroots Grant awarded by the Chatham Arts Council and funded through the N.C. Arts Council.